Fran Drescher Will Make Broadway Debut in Cinderella in 2014
TV and film star Fran Drescher will make her Broadway debut as Cinderella’s stepmother Madame in Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella beginning Feb. 4, 2014.
Drescher, who will play a ten-week engagement through April 13 at the Broadway Theatre, will succeed Tony winner Harriet Harris, who is concluding her year-long run in the musical to return to her home in California.
Best known as “The Nanny” on the long-running CBS TV comedy of the same name, Drescher received two Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe nominations for the series, which she also created, wrote, directed and executive-produced. A native of New York City, she is no stranger to the stage, having made her stage debut in The Pasadena Playhouse world premiere of Ronald Ribman's Rug Merchants of Chaos and Off-Broadway in Neil LaBute’s Some Girl(s), The Exonerated and Nora Ephron’s Love, Loss, and What I Wore. She also performed in a special production of Camelot at Lincoln Center.
"With its fresh, new take on the beloved tale of a young woman who is transformed from a chambermaid into a princess, this hilarious and romantic Cinderella," press notes state, "combines the story's classic elements – glass slippers, pumpkin, a beautiful ball and more – with some surprise twists. More than just a pretty face with the right shoe size, the Cinderella of the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical now on Broadway is a surprisingly contemporary figure living in a fairytale setting: a spirited young woman with savvy and soul, eager to develop a world view, she doesn't let her rags or her gowns trip her up in her quest for kindness, compassion and forgiveness. She not only fights for her own dreams, but makes the prince, who falls in love with her, open his eyes to the world around him and realize his dreams, too."
